Ties & Birthday Parties
by K3IR
Summary: Seth throws himself a late birthday party and invites the whole precinct. Jealous Seth. Cute Maltara. Lots and lots of cute Maltara.


**After going through the secret files, I noticed that not one of the main characters or supporting characters had a birthday for November, then looking the people who have a regular guest appearance, such as Seth and Neha, I noticed that their birthday were on the same day, November 9****th****, I couldn't come up with a good story for Neha's birthday, but a million thoughts ran through my mind as I thought of Seth. Enjoy :) **

xXx

_**You are now Special Agent Natara Williams**_

You walk through the police departments car park, noticing the lack of officers standing around and talking near their vehicles, you can't hear any chatter from inside the building either. Everything's silent bar the few cars that drive past in the early morning.

Walking up the precinct stairs, you hear a familiar voice, rolling your eyes, you debate on backing away back down the stairs before you can be noticed, "Agent Williams!" _crap, _you think, _too late._ You head further into the precinct where more than a few officers have turned their heads to look at you, you look at them and they give you a mix of sad, annoyed and 'get me the hell out of here' looks. You spot a familiar face near the water cooler, and make your way over, "So nice of you to join us Agent Williams." Seth yells, trying to embarrass you, whilst standing on an upturned crate to make himself just that little bit higher than everyone else.

"Wish the same could be said back to you, Seth. What's going on?" You ask, a few snickers being released throughout the precinct.

"Someone will fill you in soon, it was your fault you weren't here on time." He says, turning back to address everyone else.

You look over at Mal, your eyebrows are raised, he looks irritated, his jaw clamped tight, obviously trying hard not to say something that might get him suspended. Again. He balls his hands up into fists, clenching and unclenching them. He notices you looking at him and just shakes his head, leaning down so his mouth is next to your ear, "the ass is throwing himself a, late, birthday party, he wants us to 'attend'" he says, air quoting the word 'attend', "which just means that we're all going to be stuck on security detail for the snot rag all night." You form an 'o' shape with your mouth and nod your head.

Looking back over at Seth, you catch the last of his words, "the attire is elegant, so women, best dresses, men, please, at least, _try_ to look dignified." With that, Seth gets down from the crate, handing out flyers filled with information on what to wear, what's to be expected and what time it starts and ends. He gets over to you and Mal, walking straight past Mal he goes to you, standing in front of you, he gives you – what he probably thinks – his signature, 'stunning' smile, "I hope you'll be able to attend, Agent Williams, I'm looking forward to see how nicely you clean up, if it's any indication to what you normally wear," he pauses, giving her the elevator eyes, "then we should be in for a good night." He gives you a wink, handing you a flyer, for a second, you don't think you'd be able to take it without landing a neat punch to his nose, but then Mal steps in, leaning on the water cooler behind you so he's just that much closer to you, without actually touching you.

"Hey, Seth, where's my invite?" he boldly asks, knowing full well that Seth will have to reluctantly give it to him.

"Hmm? Oh. Here it is." Pulling out a flyer from the bottom of the pile, being on the bottom, it looks like someone had just gone and wiped their bum with it, reluctantly, you take your own invite from him, knowing that it's the only way you're going to get him to leave.

Mal holds his flyer between his index finger and him thumb, "wow, you really went all out just for me, didn't you?" sarcasm oozing on every word.

"You could always just, _not, _come?" Seth offers, narrowing his eyes.

Mal stands up a bit taller, "I would love that," he deadpans.

Before Seth can reply, you intervene, "he's just joking Seth, he'll be there." You say, more to Mal then to Seth. Mal goes to argue, before he can, you give him the best glare you can muster, knowing that if looks could kill, he would probably be dead by now. Mal closes his mouth and turns back to Seth,

"I can't _wait_." Mal says in a monotone voice, yet emphasizing the 'wait'.

xXx

_**You are now Detective Mal Fallon**_

Seth left the office around 2 minutes ago, leaving the office silent, either reading the flyers or giving each other dubious looks.

Natara starts walking over to her desk, you follow her, "I don't want to go." You flat out tell her.

"Too bad." She replies, not looking up from her flyer, as she reaches the edge of her desk.

"Why do I have to go?" you whine.

"You saw the way he kept looking at me, if he's looking at me like that, _clothed; _imagine what he's going to be looking at me like when I'm in a dress. He'll be like a dog in heat. And I _refuse_ to dance with… _That." _She finishes, nose scrunched up.

You go to argue, but see her point. In all honesty, you want to see the look on his face when Natara repeatedly asks you to dance with her, just to get away from him.

"Fine," you grit out, "but I'm not going to enjoy it."

"I never ask for you to enjoy it, now did I?" she smiles up at you sweetly, narrowing her eyes with an evil, yet, sexy smirk on her face.

xXx

The week – unfortunately – goes by quickly. No big serial killers come into town to wreak havoc. You're stuck on desk duty most of the time anyway, filling out over due reports.

Before you know it, Friday has rolled around, and you're forced into a monkey suit – which you have to admit, you look pretty damn good in – and Natara's expecting you to pick her up in an hour, you leave your tie off, giving up on tying it ten minutes ago, you throw it into the front seat of your car.

You drive to Natara's apartment, knuckles white on the steering wheel. You arrive outside her apartment, you press the door bell and she buzzes you in. You make your way up to her apartment, clutching your neck tie, and thinking to yourself that you should have just bought a cheap clip on one.

She opens her apartment door, revealing her hair wavy, to strands have been tucked back in bobby pins, so they don't get into her eyes, she's wearing a purple off the shoulder dress, that stops and starts flowing freely at the knees. Her wrists are complemented with black and gold bangles, and she's wearing a light layer of make-up. Suddenly, you're feeling very under dressed.

She looks at you waiting to say something, but you're at a loss for words, so you just hold out the tie that you just remembered you've been holding. She looks at the tie then back at you, smiling and rolling her eyes, she takes the tie from your hand, stepping closer to you and putting the tie around your neck, you feel her fingers brushing against your chest as she concentrates on tying the tie for you. You can feel her breath fan out against the bottom half of your face, you look up at the ceiling awkwardly, not knowing where else to look. All too soon, she pulls away, marvelling at her handy work. You look down at the perfect knot she's made.

"Heh… Thanks." You say looking down at your feet and rubbing the back of your neck, before looking back up at her. She nods at you, still smiling.

She goes back into her apartment, you wait for her at the door, she appears 3 seconds later with a small black purse, carrying her elegant black stilettos by the straps in her other hand. She shuts and locks the door behind her, and you both walk down her hallway, following the exit signs towards the elevator.

xXx

_**You are now Special Agent Natara Williams**_

You wait for Mal to get back from parking the car around the back of the giant hall that's been booked out for Seth's party. You see Mal round the corner, you go to make your way over to him before you're elbows being grabbed, and you're being forced to turn around and face whoevers grabbed you. That's when you see him, he has a cocky grin on his face and he's giving you the elevator eyes. Again. You can't help the irritation that's oozing out of your body, every part of you just wants to back hand this guy and walk away. Sadly, you know you can't do that, and knowing you can't pisses you off to no end.

"Agent Williams, don't you look stunning. Who are you here with?" Seth asks you.

"Mal." You reply, short and simple, looking over your shoulder to where you saw Mal walking towards you before Seth grabbed you.

"Where is he?" Seth's attitude changes as soon as the words out. He drops your arm quicker then you can blink.

"Here I am." Mal says, cheerily, draping an arm over your shoulders, "looks like a good party Seth, you've really out done yourself," he says, making sure to over act and fake the cheer, so it's apparent to both you and Seth that he doesn't want to be here, "we'll be sure to enjoy it. Come on Nat." he says, looking down at you, smiling widely. He steers you towards the huge, double door entrance, "is he still looking?" he whispers into your ear.

You very subtly look back to where Seth is standing, he's now welcoming some other important person, shaking hands and acting like a complete kiss ass, "nope." You answer Mal's questions.

"Thank God," he says, dropping his smile, "my cheeks were hurting."

You roll your eyes at him, walking into the great hall, his arm still draped around your shoulder.

xXx

You stand on the edge of the dance floor, standing next to Mal, whose making polite conversation to someone that you have never seen before. You do a quick scan of the room, making sure not to stop or pause when you notice that Seth's making his way over to you. You tug on Mal's sleeve, trying to get his attention, he pulls away as the person he was talking to excuses himself to go and dance with his daughter.

"Yeah?" He asks, looking down at you.

"Don't look, but Seth's on his way over here." You inform him, he looks up, looking around the room, you smack him on the arm, "I told you not to look!" you harshly whisper.

He grabs your hand and leads you out to the middle of the dance floor, "well come on then, let's dance." You mould into the crowded ball room floor of the other couples dancing, smiling and having a good time. Mal's doing his fake smile thing, both his hands are on the small of your back, and both your hands have linked together behind his neck. Mal looks around subtly, making sure that if Seth's looking at them, he doesn't notice Mal looking for him. Mal notices Seth standing at the edge of the dance floor.

"Mal? What happens when the music stops?" you ask, only just realizing what might happen after this.

"I'll just wing it." He tell you.

"Oh great, that's totally reassuring." You reply sarcastically.

Eventually the music stops, and the crowd of dances huddle off of the dance floor, you follow them, making sure to be in the middle of the crowd, so Seth doesn't notice you.

You both make your way to sit at a table that lines the edges of the dance floor, other couples with children have made their way to the dance floor, mums dancing with daughters or sons, and dads dancing with daughters, there are a little group of dressed up girls, dancing together in the corner of the dance floor, a little boy, who couldn't be more than six, goes up to a little girl in the group, holding out his hand, she takes it, they hold hands and dance to nothing, all the parents 'aww' and can be heard saying 'how sweet' or 'how cute'. You smile at the two children having a good time.

Your view is blocked when an arm comes out of nowhere, setting down a glass of champagne on the table next to you, you look up to see Mal holding his own glass of wine, smiling down at you, then smiling over to where you had just been staring, noticing the two children dancing together.

"How sweet." He smiles, mostly speaking to himself.

He pulls out a chair from behind you, and brings it to sit next to you.

"I haven't even been here for over two hours and I'm already tired and bored. Apart from dodging Holland, this sucks." He admits, looking away from the dancing toddlers.

"I'm ready to go any time you are, these shoes are killing my feet." You tell him honestly.

"Come on then." He stands up, stretching out his hand and helping you up.

"Where are we going?" you ask.

"It's a surprise." He replies with a wink.

You both make your way to the main entrance, making sure to hide behind waiters and other guests when you hear Seth's name or see him somewhere. You're both still hand in hand.

You make it down the steps of the main entrance and around the corner, walking towards where Mal parked the car,

"What do you think Seth's going to say when he finds out we blew off his party?" you ask him.

"Do you honestly care?" he asks back.

"It's the man's birthday party; don't you think we're being just a bit slack?"

"No, not one bit." He replies, squeezing your hand.

You stop him in his tracks, using him as balance as you take off your high heels, and then keep walking. He reaches over you, grabbing the heels out of your hand and mimicking you, by holding the straps. You look at the ground, trying your hardest not to smile.

You both eventually find the car, after about stepping on 13 small jagged pebbles that came loose from the tarmac. You smile as Mal opens the passenger door for you, placing your heels in front of the seat before you get in the car. He shuts the door for you, walking back around the other side of the car. He smiles at you as he shuts his car door and turns on the engine.

"Where to?" You ask him, still oblivious to wherever he might be taking you.

"Still a surprise." He tells you, before speeding out of the car park and down the street towards 'their' restaurant.

xXx

**That's it; it's only a one shot, thanks for reading. In the end you can see I said 'their' restaurant instead of the actual name for the place, it's not supposed to be cheesy or mushy, I just can't remember the name of the restaurant, it was mentioned in the very first episode, but I can't remember it! D:  
Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this.  
I'm still wondering whether I should update 'Aftermath' no one's given me any feedback on it yet, so it would be appreciated if you do, so I know what to do with it.  
Please review! (:**


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